Weekend Box Office - Smurfs Showdown Against Cowboys & Aliens

Which would you rather watch? A half-baked action/adventure flick about aging cowboys going up against alien invaders, or an eighties cartoon revival movie with a lousy Rotten Tomatoes score of 20%? Yeah...the rest of America couldn't decide either.

Cowboys & Aliens split the number one spot with The Smurfs in early weekend estimates. Both films banked around $36 million, but until official numbers are released on Monday the only losers are the audiences who paid to sit through either of the mediocre new releases.

The third newcomer, Crazy, Stupid, Love. rolled in at fifth place with only $19 million. While that's a relatively low debut for star Steve Carell, it's a record high for co-star Ryan Gosling (his previous top opening was The Notebook which took in $13 million opening weekend).

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 continued to narrow the gap with Transformers: Dark of the Moon in their match-up for top earner of the year. The final Potter entry topped off at $318 million, adding another $21 million to its total this weekend. Transformers 3 added almost $6 million bringing its total to $337 million. At this rate Potter just might be on track to break the $400 million mark, joining an elite group of only 11 other films to cross that threshold.